Posted on 07/17/2022 8:36:25 AM PDT by Rummyfan
On one occasion, comedian and film director Mel Brooks said, “The only weapon I’ve got is comedy…if I can make this guy [Adolf Hitler] ludicrous, if I can make you laugh at him, then it’s a victory of sorts. You can’t get on the soapbox with these orators…but if you can make them look ridiculous, you can win over the people.” As Thomas More observed of Satan, “the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked.”
If we consult the dark history of totalitarianism, we will see that any ideological and authoritarian system abhors humor. State-appointed writers, tasked with the grave responsibility of disseminating state propaganda, are almost by definition humorless except as the butt of jokes themselves—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s withering assessment of Maxim Gorky, Stalin’s defender of the Gulags, comes readily to mind. These so-called artistic creations were praised by either Nazi or Communist bureaucrats as great works of art. In reality, such films and books were nothing more than poorly executed pieces of propaganda that served and promoted destructive ideology.
Finding a state-appointed comedian throughout the history of totalitarianism, however, is much more difficult. Humor operates on an entirely different level than visual art, literature, and music. It gives us a glimpse into human nature, and often uncovers truths about our lives that we’d rather avoid.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanmind.org ...
“Laugh to Keep from Crying
Comedy also helps us deal with the difficulty of life.”
Some FReepers disagree, but nonetheless it is true.
is it true Solzhenitsyn went to the gulags for making a joke about stalin’s mustache?
Progressive #Progressive_Caucus
Socialist #Venezuela
Marxist #BLM
Fascist #Nazi's (Erdogan’s Turkey)
Communist #Antifa
Dictator #ComDem_Covid19_Dictators
Islamist #ISIS
Bureaucrap #the_Swamp
Corporatism #Globalist_Fascist_Cabal
All Evil. All Fail.
Freedom Works.
It's TIME to DownSize DC!
Restore the Constitution!Size DC!
.
| Author | Hannah Arendt |
|---|---|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism ISBN 0-15-670153-7 Library of Congress catalog card number 68-3757 copyright 1951 One of the most complex sentence structures of any book I have ever read. But is an important step in approaching how the Jews in Europe became trapped in the Nazi holocaust. |
Hannah Arendt is a big hero over at Daily Kos.
They use quotes from her books “all the time” in attacking Trump & MAGA.
True. One of Saul Alinsky’s rules for radicals was ridicule....which is a form of humor.
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”
There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)
It works. Why don’t Conservatives do likewise? The culture has gone insane, we have plenty of material.
They do.
Right here on FR.
Say something against Russia. All of the “conservatives” here will come out and call you the most horrible names.
Totalitarianism in all forms is Evil!:
Progressive #Progressive_Caucus
Socialist #Venezuela
Marxist #BLM
Fascist #Nazi’s (Erdogan’s Turkey)
Communist #Antifa
Dictator #ComDem_Covid19_Dictators
Islamist #ISIS
Bureaucrap #the_Swamp
Corporatism #Globalist_Fascist_Cabal
All Evil. All Fail.
Freedom Works.
It’s TIME to DownSize DC!
Restore the Constitution!⇓Size DC!
Thanks to Texas Fossil for the above!
President Reagan often used very simple humor to devastate the elite and the dumb lefties.
There were red flags everywhere.
“Comrade Stalin, we have so many potatoes that, piled one on
top of the other, they would reach all the way to God,”
the farmer excitedly tells his leader.
“But God does not exist,” replies Stalin.
“Exactly,” says the farmer. “Neither do the potatoes.”
Khrushchev stands straight up and bellows "WHO SAID THAT?!?",
looking left and right. When there is absolute silence and
no one owns up to it, he says (in a normal voice) "That is why".
Pravda - the truth.
Izvestia - the news.
No truth to the news, no news in the truth.
- it's not TRUE, most of all, it's lies and shouting down and rude profanity. It's sarcasm = NOT FUNNY.
Conservative ridicule is based on irony, the juxtaposition of leftist words and deeds:
It takes intelligence, but most importantly, it's based on TRUTH.
and it's funny...many many FReepers are downright hilarious.
Thanks.
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